I’ve got some kind of fire ant looking insect swarming in my kitchen. I’m afraid they could be termites since I know they like to swarm this time of year too. How can I tell the difference?

Ants and termites both generate swarmers or winged reproductives whose sole purpose is to leave an existing nest and then seek out new nest locations. These swarmers are trying to leave the existing nest and for the most part have just one thing on their mind: mate and start a new colony. There are several differences ant and termite swarmers but the one main difference is that ant swarmers will keep their wings – even in death. Termite swarmers will loose or drop off their wings. Furthermore, termites will appear to have bodies which are consistent from their head to their tail. Ant swarmers will look like a regular ant with very distinct body parts (3 segments) which are normally tapered. More details on these differences can be seen in this termite control article which features some video as well as a good explanation of the difference.

I am researching information re: killing fire ants. I read through your article and watched the video. The only thing I can’t find is whether or not this product is a concentrate or ready to use. In the article, I had the impression it is a concentrate. I don’t know what the dilution ratio is though to be able to order an appropriate amount.

We have an acre lot. We have had fire ant problems since the beginning of time here. If your product is a ready to use, and each mount takes 1/2 to 1 gallon of the VIPER CYPERMETHRIN 16 OZ, then we will need to research other products as there are way too many, and this would be way to costly, especially with the need to purchase stakes and baits for the most effective program. Then there would be repeated costs of treating an average of once a quarter.

Also, I read that the mound we see is really only a fraction of the size of the actual ant bed. When staking, how many holes would we punch? How far out would we need to punch from the mound?

I’ve looked at the “links” from our article to the Cypermethrin and was able to see the rate being shown to be 1 oz per gallon of water. This would be the “strong” mix. In most cases you can us as little as 1/2 oz per gallon. That means a gallon of concentrate would be able to treat 128-256 mounds and as you can see in our shopping cart, the cypermethrin gallon is much less costly than the smaller sized pint when you figure out the cost per oz. As a general rule, our larger sized products will prove to be the best “deal” and since our concentrates will keep for 5 years or more, the smart buy.

3-6 holes is plenty when using one of the staking tools we say to use in our article. And remember, the great thing about drenching is that the water will carry the chemical throughout all the tunnels and galleries of the mound so it will cover the whole thing well whether you know where the nest is or not. To insure this is true, I usually make the holes in a circle about the size of a Pizza Pie. I also try to “feel” the soil as I make the holes. If I send the mound is wide, I’ll make extra holes to help get good coverage.